Da, da, da, da, da

The babbling is getting strong here! He says Da, da, da, da a lot. There is no Ma, ma, ma, ma and I'm fine with that. One of my favoirte stories that my dad tells of when my sisters and I were this age is that he always encouraged us to say Ma ma because if we said Da da first, he would have to come every time we called instead of saying "the girls want you." So, in the proud footsteps of my father, I'm thouroughly encouraging Da da. There will be plenty of time for him to call me!

So far so good

I've created my list, and I'm working down it.

Chapter 11 homework
Done - Call insurance company about letter
Call old work
Done - Call bank about new card
Done - Shower
Done - Get Dressed
File Paperwork on Desk
Put Away Clean Diapers
In Process - Clean off Coffee Table
Done - Do Dishes
Done - Sweep Den/DR/Kitchen/Hall
In Process - Sweep Stairs/Clean Doorway

I thought I would post it here for some kind of accountability. You know to the internets...

Mood Change

I don't know why, but I have been in a bit of a funk lately. The Ferber thing was working great last week, but then teething got in the way. Miles was hoarse and grumpy on Thursday so we didn't do it then. On Friday, Jared came home from business travel and I had to get him at Miles' bedtime, so it didn't make sense to try to get back on track that day. Jared said he could still hear the hoarseness that night. At any rate, sleep has been a bit of an issue again, and I'm just not being productive around the house recently. Today that is going to change! Again, this may not be the best day to do this because tomorrow we are out of the house from about the morning nap time to after the afternoon nap but oh well. Life can't be put on hold for...well, living life (or something). I'm still on track for making the bed (yay!) and today I'm going to take a bit of time out for me. I think I'm going to walk down and get some coffee or something. But first, I have to get some around the house work done.

This will do a couple of things. It will make be feel productive again. I won't have to try to do the dishes while cooking dinner (the last couple of days it has been reheating dinner), and I will have to get dressed to get coffee. I have read the S.H.E. books and Fly Lady. They both recommend getting up and getting dressed right away. All the way down to your shoes. I have never been one to do that. Until Miles was born I always had a full time job and had to get up and get dressed right away. Now I don't and I'm enjoying that, but I do feel like a slob when I'm still wearing pajamas at the end of the day. I have a bunch of phone calls to make, homework to do, and a house to clean (but no laundry because I did that yesterday). Well, I'm off to make my list and get started on changing my mood. Not even Works for Me Wednesday can stand in my way today! Ok, I'm just going to read a couple more posts. :)

Just for fun, here is a pic of Miles "helping" with the laundry.

Tonight

I went out with a friend today. She has an eight and a half month old. They used the Ferber method too. She said that the third night was worse than the second. After that, she said, it was much better. Tonight he didn't seem tired for a good while. I put him down at almost 8:30. He was asleep by 8:40, and didn't spend enough of that time crying to go in and check on him. I thought all was good until 9:15 when he started crying again. This time it was real crying really hard. He just couldn't settle himself. After I checked on him, he was crying so hard I went in only about 2 minutes later. After I went in to settle him, I decided to give him some Tylenol. I didn't do this to make him sleepy (it doesn't seem to have this effect on him anyway), I did it because he was pulling on his ear and seemed uncomfortable. I gave him 1/2 a dose, and massaged and soothed him. I stayed in the bedroom for about 10 minutes, and for at least 2 of them he was asleep. He woke up just a bit after I left. I was worried about what me staying in the bedroom while he fell asleep did to my efforts. It seems not to have hurt them too badly. He was able to quiclky get himself back to sleep, and he woke up again just as I was getting ready for bed. He settled himself again after that. It is a bit after 11 now, and I'm hoping we don't have the 12-12:30 waking that we have had the last 2 nights. I hope it is gone, but if he is as uncomfortable as he was at 9:30 I'll probably bring him to bed and nurse him. I know I shouldn't, but I can't stand to see him in pain. If he doesn't wake up, I won't have to deal with it. Anyway, hopefully soon the sleep training will be over and I can start telling you about much more exciting things...like moving home! I can still hardly believe it! Goodnight!

1 A.M.

Hi! It's 1:00 in the morning. Yeah, I know. Last night while working on this Ferber thing, Miles woke up around 12:30 and I just brought him into my bed to feed him. This morning I'm determined not to do that, although I think I created a monster last night. I have already promised him that the next time he wakes I will feed him. I mean that too. I would just like the feeding to be closer to 2 or 3 when he usually is hungry. That would give me more like 4 hours of sleep. By myself. Instead, I'm up at 1 A.M. blogging. This sucks. I have had great results so far though. - I just read through this before posting and I want to clear something up. He shouldn't be waking becasue of hunger just yet. We worked on weaning the unnecessary night feedings before starting Ferber, and with the current eating schedule he should not be hungry. I think it is just being unsettled with some of the changes. Anyway, I'm not starving my darling son...just moving the feeding back a bit.

Yesterday, I went to a mom's group. It was fun. They were going to have pizza then go to a park that is pretty near. We missed the pizza (I screwed up the time) but we went to the park. That was cool. I met a few moms and they seemed nice. I thought I would deffinantly go back. After a while of playing at the park, Miles got hungry. I found a quiet bench and fed him. He fell asleep. Sound asleep. I talked with the other mothers for a bit, then made my way out back to the bus stop to go home. Of course not long after we left the park a loud truck woke him up. I think he slept for about 30 minutes. When we got home at about 3, he was not sleepy at all. I try not to let him sleep after 4. Sure enough at 4:30 he started showing signs of being sleeppy. Then at 4:50 he was a nightmare. I put him down for a 30/45 minute nap. After that he was still really fussy. I gave him a teething cookie, and he was much better.

Tonight when I put him down, get this, he fussed for 10 minutes. I'm not holding my breath that this means Ferber worked and we are done and it will forever be like this. I think he was really tired from the park and being around all the kids. Anyway, I'll take what I can get!

Before I got home from the mom's group Jared called. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was on my way home. Then he says, "we are moving." Yay! We are going home! I'm so overwhelmed with this news. There are still some things that need to be finalized before we are actually moving, but this is huge! We have been wanting to move for quite some time.

Anyway, it's 1:30, and he has been asleep for about 20 min. I'm going back to bed! Yay moving!

Working on sleep

I'm working on getting Miles to be able to put himself to sleep. Last weekend, I was putting Miles down for a nap but he wouldn't sleep. I had nursed and changed him so I knew it wasn't that. I gave him over to Jared (who had been gone the whole week before) and I went to take a shower...by myself...a hot one...where I didn't have to constantly worry about Miles... Anyway, Jared couldn't get him to sleep and ended up putting him down crying. We had talked about doing Ferber, but had not decided when to start. When I got out of the shower I was fine with it and we started the every 5 minutes thing. After about 15 minutes, Jared couldn't stand it anymore and got him up. I made a snide comment about that he is always the one who gives in, and we would never get Ferber to work that way. He then said that I had been home alone with Miles for a week and hadn't done it on my own. We both apologized, and neither of us should have said what we did. However, it got me thinking. Maybe I can do it on my own.

I had already been working on a consistent bedtime routine so that he knows when I want him to go to sleep. I'm also putting him in the co-sleeper (a little side car crib that pulls up to the bed). We usually co-sleep in the bed. He did pretty well last night with Ferber although I thought I would never make it! I usually feed him between 6 and 6:30. Then we stay up until 7 or 7:30. About that time we go into my bedroom (we don't have a nursery), and I change his diaper and we play or read for a while. I used to nurse him to sleep, and then when he didn't go to sleep I would put him in the sling and bounce on the yoga ball until he fell asleep. Last night, I fed him as usual at 6, and at 7:30 I changed his diaper and we played. About 7:40 he started looking tired so I nursed him for about 5 min and put him into his crib. I couldn't bear to leave him so I stayed until 8. He started crying right away (actually a bit before I left) and I waited 2 min before going in to check on him. When I went in, I rubbed his legs (it relaxes him) and talked to him. I told him how much I loved him and reminded him that he just needs to learn to sleep on his own, then I kissed him on the forehead and left. I repeated after 3 min and after 5 more. Rinse and repeat. He would usually settle down while I was in talking to him but when I turned my back and he realized I was leaving he would scream bloody murder! At 8:27 it began to settle down without me in there but it didn't last long. I checked on him again as 8:29. At 8:36 he was asleep. At 9:08 he cried for a second but not even long enough to start my timer for 5 min again. At 10:07 he started crying again, I think one of the cats may have woken him up. I checked on him twice that time, both at 5-minute intervals. At 10:21 he was settling in again. I didn't even write down when he fell asleep. After he was asleep for a few minutes, I got ready for bed and went in. I slept on Jared's side of the bed (the far side) so I wouldn't disturb what I saw as a tenuous hold on sleep. I never sleep well when I expect him not to. If I think he will be fussy, I can't get into a deep sleep even after he proves that he won't be. I didn't sleep very well. He does still have one actual feeding during the night, so I knew he wouldn't make it all night, and I was ok with that. He woke at about 12:30. I let him fuss to be sure he was actually waking. He had been restless just before so I was pretty sure this was for real. Instead of continuing to have him put himself to sleep, I changed him, brought him in bed and nursed him. This was probably not the thing to do, but it felt good to me. He didn't nurse too long and we both slept the rest of the night. Usually the night feeding happens closer to 3, so I don't know if that is what woke him up or not. This morning I followed the same bedtime routine, and put him back in the co-sleeper. I left the room at 9:25, and he was asleep at 9:43. He did fuss again for a few seconds, but that may be his way of letting off steam to settle in for good sleep. I have already done the dishes since his nap started. I wrote this post (now I'm much more relaxed) and I'm off to do homework!

After he gets up we have some errands to run, then we are going to our first mother's group! I'm excited. Last week I decided I couldn't take it anymore and I needed to get to know some other moms in the area and have some kind of regularly scheduled events.

Here's a picture just because...

S.M.A.R.T. Saturday

This week we are still working on sleep and the bed time routine. For me, it seems that this one is a hard one. For a few nights one thing will work, then he won't go to sleep that way. I need to just keep the initial bed time routine the same anyway. For me this seems to be a hard one so that is what we are working on again this week.

07/07/07 - Make bed as soon as everyone is up - Doing great! Now my husband will even do it if he is the last one up. It doesn't look like I made it, but at least the bed is covered and it looks better.
07/14/07 - Drink minimum of 64 oz. water per day - Doing well.
07/28/07 - Bed time routine for Miles
08/11/07 - Continue bed/nap time routine for Miles

August is here!

There is a blog that I read regularly. The lady who writes it takes the first day of each month to create goals for herself and review her progress from last month's goals. While I can't say that I will be doing this every month, it seems like a good idea to put some thought into goals for this month in particular.

I really need to finish up my school work for the current semester and take my final exams. I hope to finish all this month. After this I think I would like to take a month off, but I'm not set on that. I might go ahead and register for one more class. No more starting 2 at a time. This makes their exams come up on the same week and that is just too much!

I have two friends who are having babies in the next couple of months. I would like to make a couple of baby gifts for each of them. I have found some free patterns online that I like or will be modifying. I would like to make at least 2 items for each of them this month.

We are working on sleep round here recently. I hope to continue seeing improvement. (Like the positive mental attitude here? I could have said I would like to see some improvement, someday.) With luck, by the end of the month there will be no more night wakeings for feedings. After that we will be working on "self soothing." By the way, I have been working on a post about our sleep problems, but I keep re-writting it because I don't like it. Hopefully I will have that up today or tomorrow morning.

I really need to post more pictures to our family website. I will try to post at least some every week this month.

I will also continue to work on my S.M.A.R.T. habits.

I think that is plenty for now. I need to get off the computer, make my bed, play with my son, and work on some homework when he goes down for a nap!